[Cricket] West Indies v England 3rd (and crucial) test official thread

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I don't think reducing the number of counties is the answer. It would effectively disenfranchise swathes of the country from having a team to follow.

I do think the Championship needs rejuvenating. It needs pride of place in the summer and a much bigger central marketing budget. I reckon people would watch a round up show of highlights from the various games

However the biggest issue to me is participation. My kids are 10 and 7 and if I hadn't taken them down the park with a bat and ball would never have played. It's not in state schools, i'm sure there are clubs, but i've never seen any advertising for players for them.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Wouldn’t merge them, but there is a valid argument to cut the number of professional clubs and regionalise it.

I'll start .....

Crystal Palace
Leeds
Villa
Burnley ....

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I don't think reducing the number of counties is the answer. It would effectively disenfranchise swathes of the country from having a team to follow.

I do think the Championship needs rejuvenating. It needs pride of place in the summer and a much bigger central marketing budget. I reckon people would watch a round up show of highlights from the various games

However the biggest issue to me is participation. My kids are 10 and 7 and if I hadn't taken them down the park with a bat and ball would never have played. It's not in state schools, i'm sure there are clubs, but i've never seen any advertising for players for them.

I’ve always found it odd no one shows a weekly game on sky/BBC etc - you could actually have them all on the red button.

You wouldn’t need to have all the glitz etc at the games, maybe have just have the 1 game of the week you give a proper TV treatment to.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I’ve always found it odd no one shows a weekly game on sky/BBC etc - you could actually have them all on the red button.

You wouldn’t need to have all the glitz etc at the games, maybe have just have the 1 game of the week you give a proper TV treatment to.

But for TV to commit to the county championship, the EBC would have to commit to the county championship.

Scrap the stupid 100 stuff and get all the money focussed on improving the product of the CC. Schedule it in May and June, Thursday to Sunday every week, all building up to the summer tests, which are in July to early Sept. Make sure that pitches are a fair contst and if they aren't employ central groundsmen

 

[Gwylan]

I imagine the counties would have academies in the areas?

How does it work in Australia? The states are pretty large - is the level below the Sheffield Shield better than the English Version? Do they all field into the State team?

The top players will still find a way.

The counties would have academies but who are they going to play against? There'll be a time when they have to step up

Australia club system is pretty interesting. Unless it's changed in the last couple of years, they have a club system that doesn't use limited over for its leagues (although they have LO cups) and play over two days, so there's a chance to build an innings. It's also extensively played in state schools so they're not drawing on a small sub-set of players. The gap between club and state cricket is not as as big as the gap between club and county over here (except possibly in Lancashire and Yorkshire)

The standard must be high: I remember at my old club we had an Aussie join us who said he was hopeless ("I wouldn't have got into a 3rd XI at school and I've not played since then") but who scored about 70 not out in his first game for us.

 

[Gwylan]

However the biggest issue to me is participation. My kids are 10 and 7 and if I hadn't taken them down the park with a bat and ball would never have played. It's not in state schools, i'm sure there are clubs, but i've never seen any advertising for players for them.

Our club does a lot of promotion for players: posters around the town and a lot of social media. But you're right, a lot of clubs are pretty poor at this, a lot of them don't even update their websites.

Sussex are getting a lot better at liaising with clubs but clubs should be doing more to promote themselves

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Chance to Shine "mission" is to bring cricket back to state schools and has had some partial success in that respect.

When it started off about 15 years ago I was coaching club u15, county u10 and C2S - the pathway was for coaches to scout good C2S performers and point them to nearby suitable clubs [the bigger ones].

I only coach county boys now [u14] but in the 15 years I've been involved with CAG [county aged group] cricket, IMHO, the overall standard has dropped away.

There was a big dip a few years back when Sky withdrew its grass-roots funding for cricket.

Funding in recent years has been more focused on girls/womens cricket - as far as I'm aware, this is not new money, so the funding for boys cricket is now even more diluted.

I hope we soon start to see the benefits of "All Stars" and "Dynamos" as getting kids interested at this age will help them to develop a life-long love of cricket.

If Test Cricket dies [I really hope it doesn't] it will have been because of finance and that has 20/20 [IPL / Big Bash / etc.] and The Hundred at its root-cause ...

 

[Pavilionaire]

That England side had Strauss, Cook, Trott, Prior, Pietersen, Bell,Swann, Anderson and Broad - that's not just a couple of players papering over the cracks, that's a pretty decent team, all produced by county cricket (OK, KP was half produced). The team that were hammered in Australia still had Root, Stokes, Broad, Wood and Anderson - all excellent cricketers.

There are some big differences between Australia and England, notably the way the population is split. There are only five really big cities and most of the population live there (or very close to those cities). There's also Hobart which isn't big but is out on its own for Shield purposes. It's not so easy to do the same thing in the UK.

Let's imagine we cut the Championship down to eight clubs: Kent is part of Surry and Sussex is part of Hampshire. Kids play cricket at their clubs but, what happens when they're 14,15 and need to be tested at another level? How would Ollie Robinson in Margate or Mike Yardy in Hastings fare if they had to travel to The Oval or to Southampton to go up a level? The answer is that they wouldn't.

As I said, we have exactly the same ratio as Australia has when it comes to population. They have a system that allows for how that population is divided and so do we. We just need to make better use of it

We all know the team of 2011 was a superb side, but Strauss retired in 2012 and there was no replacement. By papering over the cracks I mean nothing coming through, no succession. The same goes for Cook and Strauss.

That 2011 team reminds me of Fergie's last Man Utd side that won the title. Incredible management and team spirit but criminal neglect in terms of squad development.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

We all know the team of 2011 was a superb side, but Strauss retired in 2012 and there was no replacement. By papering over the cracks I mean nothing coming through, no succession. The same goes for Cook and Strauss.

That 2011 team reminds me of Fergie's last Man Utd side that won the title. Incredible management and team spirit but criminal neglect in terms of squad development.

Hmm. But just like in international football or domestic football, it's cyclical. Sometimes your team are magic and on the up, other's they are on a downer and are rubbish.

 

[Bodian]

I'll start .....

Crystal Palace
Leeds
Villa
Burnley ....

That's one hell of a merger!

 

[Jeremiah]

I'll start .....

Crystal Palace
Leeds
Villa
Burnley ....

Apart from Leeds I can see that you are merging them on a shirt colour basis - which is nice.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Apart from Leeds I can see that you are merging them on a shirt colour basis - which is nice.

I wasn't merging, I was expelling

 

[Jeremiah]

I wasn't merging, I was expelling

Which is even nicer .

 

[Pavilionaire]

Hmm. But just like in international football or domestic football, it's cyclical. Sometimes your team are magic and on the up, other's they are on a downer and are rubbish.

When I was a kid the West Indies were the dominant side right through from the mid-70s to the late 80s, but since then they've been on the slide / mediocre. This cyclical thing is taking a hell of a long time for them to become a top side and - to be honest - I can't see it happening again in my lifetime.

You get football cycles because most of the top sides retain at least half a decent team at all times and then it depends upon who retires and who takes their place. The problem with the Windies is that once Walsh and Ambrose retired in 2000/01 they we never replaced, and when Lara and Jimmy Adams retired c. 5 years later they've never been replaced either.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

When I was a kid the West Indies were the dominant side right through from the mid-70s to the late 80s, but since then they've been on the slide / mediocre. This cyclical thing is taking a hell of a long time for them to become a top side and - to be honest - I can't see it happening again in my lifetime.

You get football cycles because most of the top sides retain at least half a decent team at all times and then it depends upon who retires and who takes their place. The problem with the Windies is that once Walsh and Ambrose retired in 2000/01 they we never replaced, and when Lara and Jimmy Adams retired c. 5 years later they've never been replaced either.

The demise of WI cricket was attributed mainly to interest from boys and young men swaying away from cricket, predominately to basketball I believe, which significantly diluted their "pool". Driven by American TV influence.

 

[Pevenseagull]

I’ve always found it odd no one shows a weekly game on sky/BBC etc - you could actually have them all on the red button.

You wouldn’t need to have all the glitz etc at the games, maybe have just have the 1 game of the week you give a proper TV treatment to.

Indeed.

There's nothing broadcast on BBC4 in the afternoons. The you tube broadcasts tying in with local radio aren't far off what I grew up watching. A little package of wickets from other games during the intervals. At least it would be something.